Racquetball Roots Run Deep

By Jake Ten Pas

When Carl Goebel turns 84 on Dec. 2, he’d love to celebrate by being back on the MAC Racquetball courts, playing with his right hand. It’s not that he won’t be on those courts regularly between now and then. No, missing out on the fun and friendship of sharing the game with his fellow court cognoscenti isn’t an option. It’s just that until his pesky rotator cuff injury heals up, he’ll be teaching himself to play with his left hand.

“If I can realign myself well enough to play with my left hand, well, I’m going to do that. I’ll practice now and see whether or not that feels comfortable or whether I’d just be a total nerd at it,” he says, smiling. “I still want to go down and watch them play racquetball, even though I can’t play at the moment. I still want to be part of the group. If I don’t come, they find ways of telling me that I will show up.”

Male friends can be the same at any age. If you don’t show up to hang out, they give you a hard time. If you do show up to hang out, they give you a hard time. “But all of it is done with a good sense of humor and camaraderie,” Goebel insists. “We are the Golden Masters.”

MAC’s diehard crew of 65-and-older racquetball devotees was formed around 1995 by program patriarch Ralph Davis, who was so committed to it that he rode his scooter from his Goose Hollow house to the club to participate even after walking the short distance became too much. His name still sits atop the glass walls surrounding the club’s main court, and both Goebel and fellow Golden Master Frederick “Fritz” Camp mention him as a continuing beacon for all who love the game.

Camp celebrated his 86th birthday on March 30 surrounded by his friends in the program and longtime club Racquetball Pro Hank Marcus, another legendary driving force for the sport at MAC. “His coaching style is inspiration, not intimidation,” Camp says of Marcus, who has taught Golden Masters to play doubles when they wanted to transition from singles games. “Right away, I knew I was working with a champion. He gave me confidence and enthusiasm to know I could do it when I was just getting started.”

Goebel, on the other hand, helped give Marcus his start at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center when the pro and Wilson High School student was just 12 years old in 1971. Goebel and fellow player Bob Lund, who traded him racquetball instruction for economics lessons at Portland State University, were regularly playing at the center when they were approached by Marcus, who asked them to teach him the game.

“We told him the basics and played with him for maybe a month or two,” Goebel recalls, adding that shortly thereafter he was called away from Portland for a few months. “Bob and I were seasoned racquetball players and knew what we were doing, but by the time I got back, that kid just destroyed us. He was so quick, and he threw himself around the court like you couldn’t believe. It’s been so fun to see someone with his skill level flourish in the sport.”

Both Goebel and Camp see themselves as carrying on a tradition at the club that Marcus and Davis created, and the former adds that racquetball needs torchbearers.

When asked why the ’70s and ’80s seem still to stand as the high-water mark of racquetball’s popularity, Goebel counters, “The better question is, why didn’t it continue to be popular? The problem with racquetball is you can’t see the ball on TV. Without that, you can’t get sponsors. It would’ve flourished as a universal sport if there were TV sponsors that would’ve popularized it essentially. It moves too quickly!”

Goebel continues that while people tend to be familiar with what he calls “two-dimensional games like tennis and pickleball, three-dimensional sports such as racquetball can be more difficult to grasp. “In those sports, the ball and your opponent are always in front of you, whereas in racquetball, your opponent can be behind you, in front of you, to the side of you, whatever. In the same way, the ball is moving three-dimensionally in the court. It can be any place and as a result of that, it’s a much more complicated game.”

“Racquetball breeds loyalty,” Camp pronounces, echoing one of Goebel’s assertions, that the sport’s off-the-beaten-track nature produces tight bonds between enthusiasts. “Have you ever heard of a great racquetball player?” Goebel asks. “Say you’re out eating dinner someplace, are people talking about how great this guy is who plays racquetball? No. Unless it’s a whole table of racquetball players.”

Fortunately, groups such as the Golden Masters exist at clubs across the country to assist these passionate souls in finding one another. “It’s not for the awards or accolades. It’s just really to have fun with the guys, and we’ve got a great group here now,” Goebel continues. “Anytime you go into a racquetball court, there are people ready to play, and if you’ve got game, they’re willing.”

Beyond the fun of the sport, Camp emphasizes that it’s one of the best ways to stay in shape he can imagine. The Golden Masters typically play between 10 a.m. and noon Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, giving them a day of rest between sessions. “It’s an opportunity to age well. Smart seniors stay with sports because they know that they hold their quality of life in their hands. There’s no way to know the future but to show up every day and try your hardest,” he says.

“Hopefully we get new people drifting in, asking, ‘Do you have room for me?’ I’ll say, ‘Hell yeah!’”